CROWN POINT | Gusts of drifting snow slid across the road as a Crown Point plow truck headed down 93rd Avenue. The vehicle moved steadily along the covered street, but never dropped its plow blade.

It couldn't -- the road is Merrillville's responsibility.

Mayor Dan Klein, who rode along with the Crown Point plow crew Tuesday, said it would only make sense for the municipalities to help each other out.
It all amounts to waste to Klein. But a neighboring Merrillville official said cities and towns should mind their own space.

"My first impression was this is a waste of energy here," he said. "We're already driving down the street, so we should just drop a plow and make the street clear. We have to go down it anyway."

The division of which border streets belong to what community is clear. Klein said he was told there are liability issues with plowing in another town or within the county's jurisdiction.

He said the issue becomes more complicated along Crown Point's southern borders, where a single street weaves in and out of the city limits.

"Picking up a plow when it's no longer city limits, then dropping it again, doesn't make sense," Klein said. "We can help them out. They can help us out. We can do it the most economic way we know how."

Merrillville Town Council President Shawn Pettit said he didn't think it would be a good policy to start taking care of other municipalities' roads.

"You could say that about Broadway, too," Pettit added. "We get calls that our roads are better except for Broadway and U.S. 30."

Both of those roads are plowed by the Indiana Department of Transportation.

Klein said he'd like to see more cooperation among all of the groups.

"Given the economy's scale and the Good Government initiative ... we need to be able to help each other out," he said.
(Munster) Times of Northwest Indiana
BY MARISA KWIATKOWSKI, Times of Northwest Indiana
mkwiatkowski@nwitimes.com